NTL - where do i stand with cable on front of house

[bobo]

Hi,

recently purchased a secondhand home where the main TV provider in the area is NTL. Now I don't have or ever want NTL installed in this house for various reasons (v.poor customer service; they refused to disconnect my elderly mothers account for months etc etc). Now I just received a letter in the door saying that they are upgrading the cable in our estate to enable broadband etc. The cables seem to string from house to house underneath the gutters/ fascia soffits. On my house I cannot see a cable and think it may have been shoved under the newish plastic fascia soffits out of sight. Given my gripes with NTL am I within my rights to (a) refuse them access to my property and (b) refuse them to string an upgraded cable across my gutters. I cannot see anything in my deeds stating otherwise. Also, if a cable is currently present then i want it removed otherwise i will snip it myself. From their letter it seems they will go ahead without asking individual permission. Has anybody experience of this?

 

[MB05]

I just had NTL do work on my property in the last few weeks. I have NTL so I had no issue with the cables being there but I don't think it is right that they access your property without your permission and I don't think they have a leg to stand on if you tell them not to touch your property.

I am an end house and they wanted to put a signal booster box on the side of my house so I at least had some warning that this was going to happen. One of the work men contacted me and offered me discounted bills to allow them to do it. I haggled a bit and eventually agreed to let them do the work providing they put the box where we agreed and if possible I wanted to know when the work was being carried out.

A few weeks later my Dad gets a call from one of the neighbours that my alarm is going off and when he went around to check it out NTL were on top of my extention. When I got home I was livid as I expressly said I didn't want the box there and that I wanted notification of when they were going to do the work so I rang the guy I was dealing with. He came back a few days later and agreed to move the box etc. When I said I wasn't happy about his workers being on my extension without me being there he told me himself that he would call the police if he came home and found them there. He is Polish and cannot understand the way NTL etc don't get permission to be there first. He told me in Poland the company would have to have agreement from all the houses in an estate before they upgraded an area.

My next door neighbour doesn't have cable tv and doesn't want it so she told them to remove some of the wires as they were unsightly. She said she only allowed them to keep the others up as she didn't want to prevent me or other neighbours from getting service. I told her it was her property and her decision (easy to say when I still have access to TV!) but maybe you should consider this before taking any action as you may alienate your neighbours and the last thing you want when you are new to an area is to start fighting with the neighbours. I think NTL bank on this.

 

[ang1170]

There's been a couple of threads on this very topic recently - check them out.

Basically, they need your permission to do any work on your property, and you're quite within your rights to refuse them.